Friday, September 9, 2011

Ella turned 17 months old yesterday! At 17 months, she is sweet, loving, funny, and smart! She is still not really talking, but she knows so many words. A few weeks ago, I started writing down words that she knows and it was over 100. The only words she says are Mom, Dada, whoa, yay, and just yesterday she started repeating Ella (Eh-wah) and woof woof (woo woo). None of the words are consistently used at this point, but she is able to communicate with us through baby signs and various sounds.A few weeks ago, we removed Ella's crib from her room. She has never been a crib baby. Between a pack-n-play by our bed for the first 6+ months of her life, co-sleeping, and partial nights in her crib where she ALWAYS woke up crying and extremely upset, she has always seemed to dislike her crib. I can't say I blame her. After thinking about the floor beds used at her old Montessori daycare, I decided to give it a try and move her mattress to the floor. It worked out great! She LOVES her bed now that she has the control of getting in and out of bed on her own. She no longer cries when she wakes up, but instead gets out of bed and starts playing with toys or goes to the door and kind of knocks to let us know she's up. I am amazed at how well she is doing with that freedom at such a young age.Ella's favorite activities are running and exploring outside, going for walks, pushing her baby dolls in the stroller, buckling and unbuckling the stroller, and looking at books. She loves to dance, help pick things up, and do things that make her feel like she's helping me. For example, she likes to help clean up food from her tray and hand it to me when she's done eating, she likes to throw things away, she likes to carry the key to the mailbox (she also like to get my shoes out and get the key out and put it away when she knows it's mail time), and she even puts her daddy's clothes that he leaves on the bathroom floor in the mornings in the clothes hamper! Her favorite foods are still fruits and veggies, but she also loves polenta casserole, hard-boiled eggs, Earth's Best crackers with soy cheese slices, raisins, peanut butter, beans, black olives, and avocadoes (she has no problem eating a whole one!).Ella is such an incredibly sweet little girl. I know most of it is her personality, but I like to think it also has to do with our parenting. If we let Ella cry-it-out, yelled and spanked her and used other mainstream discipline, and didn't attachment parent (babywearing, cosleeping, feeding on demand, responding sensitively to all of her needs, and giving her lots of love and cuddles), I think we would have quite a different child by this point. I think both nature and nurture play a part in what a sweet and sensitive personality she has. Either way, I am so grateful to be Ella's mommy!